Elaine is 1 - Let’s go to Bath!

Because why not? We weren’t planning on doing a big birthday party but still wanted to make Elaine’s first birthday special. So we decided to go to Bath. We had heard from a number of people that it was a must-see and a cute city. And being that it’s only an hour and a half by train from London, it was a perfect weekend getaway spot.

And people were right….it is indeed a cute little city. We took Friday off and got there by noon. I had randomly found that there was a Mission Burrito there. Named after a couple who spent time in San Francisco eating at all of the taquerias in the Mission and who wanted to bring it back to the UK. Sadly there isn’t one in London because yes we did try it (I mean really, how could we not?) and yes it was delicious!! We even contemplated going back again the next day (we didn’t).

In the afternoon we did the tour of the Roman Baths because you must see the Roman Baths when in Bath. And then after walking around just a bit more, it was time to head back and get settled for the night. This is where the fun begins. Elaine had a ROUGH night Friday night. She went down fine but woke at 1:30am and didn’t really go back to sleep until maybe 4:30am and that was sleeping on Nate. She was awake again at 6:30 and had no interest in falling back to sleep. Needless to say we were both frustrated and tired. And there went our Saturday morning in Bath as I desperately needed to go back to sleep after Nate woke up. She was already not feeling 100% when we arrived and we suspect that was the main issue on Friday night as she came down with an actual fever that following Wednesday.

So, we got a later start on Saturday than what we had hoped but we made it out still the same and started the day checking out the Royal Crescent. It’s a semi-circle of houses facing a huge park where many notable people have either lived or stayed. It was cool to see and it faces Victoria Park which was also nice to walk through.

We were then off to lunch (not Mission Burrito) and after that Nate took Elaine back to the apartment to attempt to get her down for a decent nap (he was barely successful). Josephine and I went off on a mission to get some cupcakes to later celebrate Elaine’s birthday and then wandered around the center of Bath a bit. We checked out the Pulteney Bridge, rode some buses and eventually ended up back at the apartment in time for Elaine to wake up.

Since it was a birthday trip, we couldn’t leave without singing happy birthday to the birthday girl. Elaine wasn’t so interested in her cupcake but Josephine swooped on in and had both hers and Elaine’s. What a nice big sister.

We had time to head out for dinner and then we were out the next morning. It was a short trip, shortened a bit by the unexpected. We didn’t see as much as we would have liked but we did get a good feel for Bath and would highly recommend it. It’s a cute little city and we certainly wouldn’t hesitate in going back.

Happy 1st Birthday Elaine!!! Thank you for the many smiles, all the laughter and the love you have added to our family. We love you so much!! (And of course we celebrated again on her actual birthday that following Tuesday.)

Edinburgh

Waiting for the train at King's Cross

We recently had the pleasure of more visitors here in London….my Aunt Deborah and Uncle Jim from Florida! They came to check out London but also planned a long weekend in Edinburgh and we decided to join them. We hadn’t done any traveling since we moved to London and we were ready to start exploring again. Edinburgh had been on our list of places to visit so it was perfect. Our first adventure out as a family of four.

We took a 4.5 hour train ride which surprisingly went well and felt quick. The girls both did so well! Edinburgh greeted us with true Scottish weather….cold and rainy. We arrived on a Thursday and lucky for us, that was the worst of it for the weekend. We didn’t see rain anymore after Thursday.

We had two full days to explore all of Edinburgh. With two kids we moved a bit slower but managed to check out a number of things. We went up to the Edinburgh castle where we had blue skies and great views. Of course we walked the Royal Mile and went to the National Museum of Scotland. This was great as it had a number of exhibits that were specifically geared towards kids and Josephine loved it! There was of course a whiskey tasting that Nate and my aunt were specifically interested in. And we played in the Princes Street Gardens.

Charming Edinburgh

At Edinburgh Castle

Cookie break in Princes Street Garden

Whiskey tasting

We thoroughly enjoyed our visit and Edinburgh in general. It was charming with such character.  Josephine still talks about how she wants to “go back to Edinburgh”. Maybe someday….or at least back to Scotland.

Easter with the Lamson’s

Easter is a four day weekend in the UK with Good Friday and Easter Monday as holidays and this is exactly when the Lamson family came for a visit. It worked out perfectly to have such a long weekend to spend with them. They arrived the Thursday before Easter and stayed with us for the whole week. It was super fun to have them staying here in the house as the kids had a blast playing with each other and us adults got more time to visit.

Friday was a bit of a down day as they adjusted to the new time zone but on Saturday we all ventured out to the London Transport Museum. This is a museum that has been recommended by multiple people and has therefore been on my list of places to visit. And after visiting I can see why it was so highly recommended. It was great for kids with a big London bus for them to get on and be in the driver’s seat, a trolley car they could climb in as well as an old train they could sit on. The kids all had a blast and it was interesting for the adults too. We followed that up with a much needed trip to a nearby pub.

Sunday was Easter where we kept it more local with church in the morning, brunch at home, an improvised Easter egg hunt in front of our house and a typical Sunday roast dinner at a local pub to cap it all off. Overall a great Easter day!!

As Monday was a holiday, we headed to Kensington Gardens to check out the Princess Diana Memorial Playground and the surrounding gardens. This was yet another place that had been recommended to us and had been on my list of places to visit. And it certainly did not disappoint! The playground was more like an adventure playground with multiple sections and a big wooden pirate ship in the middle. Once again, the kids had a blast.

Before we knew it, Nate and I were back at work and the Lamson's were out exploring more of London during the day. On Tuesday, the boys were nice enough to take the kids and Kristine and I went out to dinner and saw a show...An American in Paris. It’s been years since I’ve been to the theater so it was nice and really fun to be out, just us girls! The show itself was also really entertaining and made me miss Paris.

Just a couple more days and we were already on the last night of their trip. We stayed up way too late of course, trying to get in the last bit of visiting. We had such a fun week with them and Josephine certainly loved having Ethan and Trevor as constant playmates. Until next time!!!

US Travels

I’m way behind in writing this post but life has been busy is all I can say. So Christmas. We seem to have started this tradition where we go back to the US every other year for Christmas. And Christmas 2016 was a year to go home. It worked out well because then we could introduce Elaine to family and friends that hadn’t met her yet.

We started our adventure by heading to Dundee, OR a few days before Christmas. We met Nate’s parents there and spent the week of Christmas with them. Dundee is also where our friends Ron and Lindsay live and so it gave us the opportunity to spend time with them as well and their newborn baby girl. We had a wonderful Christmas together, we got to spend some quality time with Nate’s parents (and they got to spend some quality time with the girls), we relaxed, saw friends (thanks Chad and Tasha for coming out to us!) and even got out to enjoy a bit of the Oregon wine country where we were staying. Nate’s parents were nice enough to babysit Josephine so we could get out for a bit and do some wine tasting with Ron and Lindsay.

The week flew by and before we knew it it was time to say goodbye to Grandma and Grandpa Ross and head to the Bay Area. Kristine and Aaron were kind enough to host us once again. The kids had a blast playing together. We did the train of lights in Fremont, which was fun and Christmasy. The guys got out for a night in the city and Kristine and I got our own time out. Nate and I took the girls into the city for the day to meet up with friends for lunch on the Embarcadero. We then headed over to Pac Bell Park as Nate had to show Josephine exactly where the Giants play.

This year was yet another mellow New Year’s Eve and we rang it in with Kristine, Aaron, Louis and Keelin and the kiddos. It was all perfect and everyone was pretty much in bed shortly after midnight. Life with young kids!

It was of course a quick week and before we knew it we were saying goodbye. Nate headed back to London and the girls and I headed to my parents’ in San Miguel. Since I was on maternity leave it provided a good opportunity for us to spend some extra time in the US.

We spent 3 weeks with my parents and did lots of fun stuff. We went to the Children’s Museum, which Josephine loved. We walked around Cal Poly. This was fun as I hadn’t been on campus since I graduated and another bonus was showing Josephine where Mommy went to school. Her comment “Wow, it’s big!”. We had two separate visits to Firestone (a must visit, of course). We celebrated my birthday. Catherine came and we were able to celebrate for the day together. Mom and Dad were kind enough to watch Josephine so we could get out for lunch and do some wine tasting. As a bonus, Lisa was there too! I got to visit with other friends too….lunch with Jess, dinner with Dave and Angie. It was nice having so much time to be able to do these things.

Josephine got to have some fun in the country. She rode her John Deere tractor, hiked around the hills and a favorite was riding in the truck with Grandpa to take the garbage cans down to the end of the driveway for pickup. No carseat or anything! Needless to say, it was always hard to get her out of the truck.

We ended our 3 weeks with a baptism for Elaine. Nate came back for a long weekend (planned accordingly so that I didn’t have to travel back to London alone with the girls). It was a great opportunity to baptize Elaine with many of our friends and family present. Josephine got to play with her cousins….and had a blast of course.

Overall it was a great 3 weeks filled with so many experiences and memories. After 5 weeks in total back in the US, it was a bit rough getting back settled again in London. But after 10 days, all was back to normal.

Hello London and Welcome Elaine

Wow, a lot has happened since our last post. And because so much has happened, it explains why it’s been months before I’ve been able to post anything here. Let’s start with our move to London. We said goodbye to Paris and arrived in London at the very end of May, just in time to move into our new place on June 1. The move itself was a complete whirlwind and I think we got in over our heads. Without Nate or I really taking any time off of work, we moved in, bought all new furniture (as we were coming from a furnished place in Paris), found a nursery for Josephine and then went through a settling in process over a 3 week period.

And then of course the unexpected things popped up that you just don’t have time for. I was 7 months pregnant at the time and came down with a horrible sinus cold which knocked me out for a week and a half. This meant Nate had to do a lot of the furniture buying, unpacking and other household chores. Oh and we started getting these mysterious bug bites which turned out to be bird mites. A few visits from pest control and 2 months later, that finally got resolved. We didn’t have internet for 10 days which doesn’t sound awful but it’s crazy how much we really do depend on it. And through all of this I was making sure we were all set up with a GP and registered at a hospital for when Elaine arrived. It was a very busy, very stressful time indeed and I’m so glad that’s behind us.

Oh but Nate and I were able to get away for a day of London sightseeing and lunch to celebrate our anniversary. Happy 10th anniversary to us!

Sightseeing with Mom and Dad

And just as we were starting to finally feel remotely settled, well that’s when Elaine made her arrival. She came on her due date of August 22. Thankfully this was after my parents arrived so we had someone to watch Josephine while we were at the hospital. I had started my maternity leave in early August which gave me a week to rest before my parents arrived. Then I had a few days to do some fun stuff in London with them before Elaine came. Timing-wise it all worked out perfectly.

Hello Elaine!

Now we are adjusting to being a family of four. Josephine absolutely adores Elaine and loves being a big sister. She is our little helper for sure. She loves helping with diaper changes and always makes sure to tell us when Elaine is crying or has spit up. It’s really sweet although she does have her moments and we need to remind her to be gentle with her. But she always wants to know where Elaine is and what she’s doing and gives her kisses any opportunity she gets.

Sisters!

It’s been 5 months since we arrived and we haven’t had much time to really enjoy our new city. Life is finally settling down now though and I feel like we can start exploring and enjoying London.

Skiing in Austria

Ok, so this blog post is way overdue. We did a ski trip in Serfaus, Austria for a week at the beginning of March and it’s now almost June. In the interest of catching up, I’m going to just give a quick overview of the highlights.

• Serfaus, Austria - Same place we went last year. Same friends. Same hotel. Same great experience.
• Nate was happy - he got to ski 5 out of the 6 days we were there. I being pregnant did not ski and instead was super happy relaxing, having a spa day and taking leisurely walks outside.
• Josephine had fun running around in the snow, taking a gondola ride to meet daddy for lunch, sledding, playing in the indoor pool and exploring the kids club at the hotel (Let’s be truthful, this one made all of us happy. While it took Josephine a bit of adjusting to get dropped off here, she did really love their big slide and all the fun things to do and we got to have free time to do the things mentioned above).

And that about sums up our week in Austria. We once again had a fantastic experience at the hotel with all food being included plus daycare. The weather was a bit colder and snowy in the beginning of the week and the sun came out at the end of the week. It truly felt like a restful, relaxing vacation. And those can be hard to come by when you have a toddler with you.

Big Changes Coming Up

It looks like 2016 will be a year filled with a couple of big changes for us. First off, Nate has received a great job opportunity through Nasdaq. However this new position is based in London. That means as of June 1 we will leave Paris and make a new home in London. He’ll get a chance to try out management and see how he likes it.

And on top of this, I am pregnant and due at the end of August. So all the more reason we want to get to London as soon as we can to get settled.

As for London, Nate and I took a quick trip there a couple of weeks ago as we are working with an agency to help us find a new home. We don’t want to (nor do we have time to deal with) a temporary home so we want to find a home and move into it right when we get there. We spent a day with the agency and saw 15-16 different places. Lots of variety which was good. There was one place in particular that we both liked and lucky for us, the landlord accepted our offer. Our new home will be in Parsons Green, in the southwest part of London. We are just finalizing the tenancy agreement now so barring anything unexpected, we should be able to get the keys on June 1. We’re really excited about the neighborhood as it had been recommended by a couple of people. It’s very family friendly, has a few good market streets with shops and restaurants and should make a good new home for us.

Our visas also came through this past week so we are officially allowed to move to London. Things are all moving in the right direction.

As for the new baby. We found out we’re expecting a girl! No big surprise there I suppose as our family seems to definitely favor girls over boys. We’re very excited though and Josephine loves to talk about her “baby sister”.

Now that we have a place to live, that’s created a whole new list of things to do. I’m working on finding a hospital for delivery, a doctor and childcare. It’s definitely a busy time right now trying to get everything organized but I’ll be excited to get to London and get settled there.

I’ll definitely miss Paris and I don’t think it’s quite hit me yet that we’re leaving. I guess I have too much other stuff occupying me for the time being. I know for sure I’ll miss the boulangeries, cheese and cheap but great wine. But I have to admit, I’m also really excited about living in an English speaking country again.

The countdown is on. Only 3 weekends left here in Paris. Hard to believe that we’re moving to yet another country. Let the adventure continue!